Many packages and articles that are in widespread use have carrying handles that present a small or narrow support surface to the hand of the person carrying them. For instance, paint cans or pails have a wire bail which is used to carry the can or pail, and the plastic merchandise bags which are used in virtually all grocery stores, as well as in other establishments, have plastic loops or carrying handles formed at an upper end of the bag. When the bag is filled with goods and carried by these handles, they bunch up and present a very small cross section to the hand of the person carrying the bag. The relatively small carrying handles on these articles are uncomfortable to the user. Nonetheless, the plastic merchandise bags are popular with merchandisers and consumers alike because of their versatility and strength. However, in addition to the complaint relating to the discomfort caused to the user by the relatively narrow supporting surface of the carrying handles provided on these articles, the carrying handles or loops provided on plastic merchandise bags also tend to separate when the bag is released by the person carrying it, whereby the top of the bag is liable to open, spilling the contents of the bag.
In order to alleviate these problems, various hand grip devices have been developed in the art for carrying packages or bags having rope or plastic handles, and cans or pails, such as paint cans, having wire bails. Such hand grip devices have also been developed for carrying plastic merchandise bags of the type commonly used in grocery stores and other merchandising outlets. In use, these hand grip devices are placed around the handles of the article to be carried so that they provide a larger supporting surface and thereby contribute to the comfort of the user.
Some of these prior art devices are rigid and are manufactured with a predetermined curvature or shape, while others are flexible and have fastening means built into them to maintain them in folded relationship about the carrying handle of the article on which they are used. Further, some of the rigid prior art devices have notches at opposite ends for receiving the carrying handle of the article to retain the hand grip in place.
These prior art devices are either relatively complex and expensive in construction, and/or require extra manipulative steps to place them on and remove them from the carrying handle of an article, and/or do not have any means for retaining the device in place on the carrying handle, and/or are relatively bulky and not easily carried or stored when not in use.
Accordingly, there is need for a hand grip device that may be easily placed on and removed from the carrying handle of an article, which is simple and inexpensive to manufacture, which may be easily carried or stored when not in use, and which retains the carrying handles especially of plastic merchandise bags in place to prevent spilling of the contents of the bag when the person carrying the bag sets it down.